Fitzgerald: A trend Stockton definitely must stop

Stockton’s General Plan yields this radioactive nugget: “The personal income gap between residents in the city of Stockton and California is growing.”

In 1970, “Stockton, California, and the U.S. had about the same average personal income,” it reads. “However, by the early 1980s, Stockton’s average per-capita personal income had decreased compared to California and national averages.”

The gap is widening.

Back in 1985, the difference was a modest $3,504 a year. But, “By 2013, the personal income gap between Stockton and California was four times greater, $13,862.”

Why? The General Plan doesn’t say. We are left to wonder if Stockton is suffering a gradual but inevitable economic decline, and where that leads. Nowhere good.

Whatever the case, we’re not alone. Bottom and median wages have been flat nationwide for decades, though the top of the wage scale has soared.

And the moneyed class, the 1 percent whose members get interest, dividends, rent and other profits, averages over 38 times more income than the bottom 90 percent, according to inequality.org.

That’s debatable. The question is, why is Stockton on the wrong side of the inequality divide? And what, if anything can policy makers do to reverse the trend?

In a way, I already answered my own question. Blue-collar Stockton is on the wrong side because it’s blue collar. And it’s blue collar for various reasons.

One is low education. Since 1980, the percentage of San Joaquin residents with a bachelor’s degree rose from 11.5 percent to 18.5 percent.

That sounds good — until you contrast it with the U.S. average, which rose from 16 percent to 30 percent today.

“We’ve improved, but not to the extent that modern economy demands,” said Jeffrey Michael, Director of the Center for Business and Policy Research at the University of the Pacific.

The city’s workforce is ripe for manufacturing jobs. But California’s costs and regulations give the competitive advantage to the Midwest and “Right to Work” states in the South.

The Port of Stockton (city) and the business park at Stockton Metropolitan Airport (county) are building infrastructure and adding jobs.

But the city still isn’t attractive enough to employers. The city needs to tame crime, abate blight and juice things up with some urban arts and events pizzazz.

The fun factor is not to be underestimated. Sacramento is chipping in $25,000 to fund art installations in a vacant warehouse on lower Broadway, a project called “Art Street.”

It’s a sequel to the “Art Hotel,” a project last year in which artists filled a soon-to-be demolished apartment building with art and ephemeral brewpubs. That installation drew hordes.

The city’s new mayor, Darrell Steinberg, believes subsidizing fringe arts has an “economic value” as attractive to employers. He calls it “an economy of cool.”

Here, it also could stem brain drain.

Cash-strapped Stockton may not have the money to subsidize art happenings. But it can move beyond basic job attraction and start looking to lure higher-end wage jobs, said Micah Runner, the city’s Economic Development Director.

City Hall has not ventured to offer job-based incentives, but it could, said Runner. Then, “You’re focusing your incentive packages you have on those higher-wage type industries.”

“We’ve be focused a lot on the basics the last few years, which is what we had to do,” Runner said. “I think you’re going to see in the next few years us getting more proactive on the not-so-basics.”

For my (stagnant) money, the single best thing the city could do is lure a California State University, Stockton.

Assembly member Susan Eggman, D-Stockton, directed the state Legislative Analyst’s Office to figure out what California cities most deserve the next public university. That study is due out Thursday.

— Contact columnist Michael Fitzgerald at (209) 546-8270 or michaelf@recordnet.com. Follow him at recordnet.com/fitzgeraldblog and on Twitter@Stocktonopolis.

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